Residents take call at Pitt County Memorial Hospital (PCMH) only. Residents are responsible for planned admissions to the inpatient unit if they arrive after hours. They provide psychiatric evaluation and consultation for patients presenting to the emergency room and consults in the hospital. Residents are allowed to take call from home if patient volume allows. A call room is provided if needed. PGY-1’s take call approximately 5 times/month. PGY-2’s take call 5 times/month but 2 or 3 of these call days are emergency back-up to the primary resident on call. PGY-3 residents do not take primary call but provide emergency back up call for PGY1 and PGY2 residents. In the first 2 months of the academic year the more senior residents serve as “buddies” and work beside the PGY-1 residents in order to smooth their transition into the psychiatry program. Medicine, Family Medicine and Pediatrics call is approximately every 4^th night.

Call is supervised by faculty who are available to discuss all cases, provide teaching and assist the resident with decision making. Residents on call also participate in inpatient rounds on weekends. We consider call to be an important learning experience for residents. In addition to the supervision provided by the attending on call, a senior faculty member with expertise in Emergency and Consult/Liaison Psychiatry reviews emergency room cases with residents the morning following their call night. This gives residents an opportunity to review their clinical work as well as to learn about systems issues, ethical dilemmas and legal concerns that often arise when on call or providing consultation services.